The surname Price originated in Wales. It is a corruption of the name Ap-rhys, meaning ‘son of Rhys’. Another similarly derived Welsh name is Bevan, which comes from a corruption of Ab-Evan. Rice is better known in the form Rees or Rhys, and the first name Rhys is thought to derive from the Old Welsh, meaning ‘ardour’.

The surname Price is found all over Wales and in the Welsh border counties, as are the previously mentioned names to which it is clearly related.

Occasionally, the surname Price has an English origin. The word ‘pris’ came to England with William the Conqueror and the Normans in 1066, then, as a word for the price of goods, in the thirteenth century it became an occupational name given to a pricer or fixer of prices (with ‘fixer’ in the original sense of the word-no deviousness is implied).

Popular variations on this name are Pryce, Prise, and Pryse. It is also often found in double-barrelled form with the widespread Welsh names Jones and Thomas, as in Price-Jones and Price-Thomas. The surname Thomas derives from the first name, which comes from the Ancient Aramaic word meaning ‘twin’ (for further details see Thomas). The surname Jones is short for ‘son of John’. The first name John comes from the Hebrew meaning ‘God is gracious’ (see Johnson).

The first mention of the Welsh form of Price comes in the 1393 Archives for the City of London, where one Jorwerth ap Reys is listed. However, the Anglo-Norman name appears even earlier, in the 1297 Accounts for the County of Cornwall, where one Robert Price is mentioned.

Prices have made a name for themselves in the arts. Vincent Price (b. 1911) has been a superstar of horror movies and thrillers since the early Thirties. He also has a second career as an art critic, and owns a remarkable collection of Impressionist paintings. Leontine Price (b. 1927) is the first black American soprano to achieve superstar status in the world of international opera. Her appearance in the 1950’s revival of Porgy and Bess is now remembered as a classic. English character actor Dennis Price has appeared in such notable films as Kind Hearts and Coronets and I’m All Right, Jack and his greatest recent role was as the unflappable Jeeves in The World of Wooster. In fact, Dennis Price’s real name is Dennistown Franklyn.

One of the great master-buildings designed by America’s greatest twentieth-century architect, Frank Lloyd Wright (1868—1959), is the Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. It was erected in 1956 and incorporates many of his revolutionary ‘organic’ ideas.

The National Laboratory of Psychical Research was founded in 1937 by Harry Price. He advertised in The Times for objective observers to witness psychical phenomena. Countless inexplicable ‘phenomena’ have been, and continue to be, investigated by this society, though their authenticity con­tinues to be doubted by the sceptical.

The early American architect Bruce Price designed some of North America’s most distinctive buildings. His most memorable works include the imposing Gothic-style Chateau Frontenac hotel in Quebec City, Montreal’s Royal Victoria College, and several dormitories at Yale University. He also laid out New York’s Tuxedo Park, and designed many of the houses there.

Bonamy Price, professor of political economy at Oxford in the late nineteenth century, helped mould economic thinking of the day in books such as The Principles of Currency and Chapters on Practical Political Economy.

The United Kingdom has one name-related place-Price Town, while Canada has one town called Price and the United States has 3 so named as well as a Pricetown. Australia and the United States have Price rivers, while Canada boasts a Price Island in British Columbia.

With about 109,000 namesakes Price is the 48th most popular surname in England and Wales. (The name is not common enough throughout Scotland to be counted separately.) Price is notably popular in and around Cardiff where an estimated one in about 140 families bears the name. In descending numerical order Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol are other Price strongholds. Around the world Prices are most common in Canberra (one in 1,045 families), Wellington (one in 1,168) and Sydney (one in 1,283). The United States has more Prices than the entire population of Southampton-an estimated total of just over 237,000 makes this their 81st most popular surname.